# Cumberland County Public Hearing — Data Center Moratorium # > **Meeting type:** County commission / council public hearing (inferred) **Primary topic:** Proposed moratorium on data center development **Secondary item:** Rezoning request (case KCUA 260013, Holloway/Astara area) **Source:** Auto-transcribed (`meetingnotes.md`, 90,521 chars, no original speaker labels) ## Executive Summary **Headline:** Public comment ran heavily — but not unanimously — in favor of pausing data center development. Of **25 public speaker turns** (\~20 named + \~3 unidentified), **3 opposed the moratorium or leaned against it on economic / utility-industry grounds** (Ron Ross at #3, **Tim Bryant — CEO of PWC, Fayetteville's electric utility** — at #10, Richard Van Wye at #20); 22 supported it. **A key fact emerged in deliberation: legal counsel confirmed the moratorium would not halt any in-flight data-center permits, and staff confirmed no data-center permits are currently approved or pending in the county.** The moratorium is therefore entirely prospective. The board committed to a joint-planning-commission process with the City of Fayetteville and left scope/duration open for revision. **Notable nuance from supporters:** Isaac Alfaro (#12) and Trish Wyman (#14) asked for the moratorium to be made *more specific* (target only high-capacity AI/crypto, not all server rooms) and *longer* (3 years, not 1). **Background.** The board scheduled a public hearing on a proposed moratorium on new data center development in Cumberland County, published in advance. Twenty-four speakers signed up; the hearing followed a standard call-and-comment format with three-minute turns. **Relevance.** This is the first structured opportunity for residents to influence data center policy before an ordinance is drafted. The decisions made here shape how cryptocurrency- and AI-driven facility requests are reviewed for at least the next year and set precedent for the joint planning process with Fayetteville. **Key facts** * **Volume:** 25 public speaker turns (\~20 named + \~3 unidentified). **22 in support of the moratorium**, **3 against or leaning pro-data-center**: Ron Ross (national-trend / "5,000 data centers already exist"), **Timothy "Tim" Bryant — CEO of PWC** (Fayetteville Public Works Commission, the local electric utility — speaking with current operational authority that PWC rate-rider mechanisms already insulate residential customers; opposes a one-year moratorium specifically), Richard Van Wye (48-year resident; wants the county to attract corporate investment; cites trades — electricians, plumbers, HVAC, IT — as beneficiaries). * **Pro-moratorium concerns:** water consumption (cooling), grid load and ratepayer impact, particulate and noise pollution, proximity to homes and schools, irreversibility of environmental damage, speed of recent approvals, and inadequate community notice. * **Anti-moratorium / pro-development arguments:** PWC has existing rate-rider mechanisms that prevent residential cross-subsidy; data centers do not strain schools, fire, or general services and pay property tax; surrounding counties will capture the investment if Cumberland blocks it; construction and skilled-trades jobs are real. * **Themes beyond environment:** property values, tax burden shifting onto residential ratepayers, lack of long-term *permanent* job count (cited by moratorium supporters), and the perception that recent projects were waved through. * **Board response from the Chair:** explicit acknowledgement that "this was not a check-the-box moment," commitment to joint planning commission review, openness to amending the moratorium language based on what was heard. * **Procedural posture:** public hearing was closed; board moved into deliberation, then proceeded to an unrelated rezoning case (KCUA 260013, Hutches property — woodworking site, 4.31 acres, unified-zoning request). * **Critical Q&A during deliberation (two-part, board-initiated):** 1. Board asked **legal counsel** whether enacting the moratorium would halt any data-center permits currently in progress. **Counsel: No** — the moratorium would not stop in-flight permits. 2. Board then asked **staff** whether any data-center permits are currently approved or pending. **Staff: None** — no data-center permits are approved or pending in the county. > Together these answers materially reduce the urgency framing on both sides: there is no pending application the moratorium needs to catch, and equally, no project the moratorium would block from proceeding. The moratorium is *prospective only*. This also undermines Speaker #20 Richard Van Wye's implication that "moratoriums get proposed when somebody has already applied." **Ending — what to expect next** * Joint planning commission to take up draft ordinance language; public input mechanism continues at the ordinance stage. * Board indicated potential changes to moratorium scope/duration before adoption (length, exemptions, and notification triggers were all flagged during deliberation). * Coordination required with City of Fayetteville planning staff before any ordinance moves forward. **Follow-up — open questions for the reader** * **Duration:** Is the moratorium one year as drafted, or shorter/longer after revisions? Council deliberation references both. * **Scope:** Does it cover all data centers, or only above a size/load threshold? Not resolved on-record. * **~~In-flight projects:~~** ~~How are pending applications treated during the pause?~~ **Answered on-record:** none currently approved or pending (per staff), and moratorium would not halt any in-progress permits anyway (per legal counsel). * **Utility coordination:** PWC water/sewer capacity for affected areas was raised but staff had no update. * **Vote:** The transcript ends mid-deliberation; no recorded motion or vote outcome is captured here. Confirm against the official minutes. > **Caveat on this document.** Source is an auto-generated transcript with no speaker labels. Names and quotes are inferred and cleaned but not authoritative — verify against official minutes before citing publicly. Uncertain attributions are marked `[?]`. ## TL;DR (one paragraph) County board opened a public hearing on a data center moratorium. 25 public turns — roughly 22 in support, 3 opposed (Tim Bryant, CEO of PWC, on utility-rate grounds; Van Wye and Ross on economic-development grounds). Supporters cited water/power use, pollution, property values, and the pace of recent approvals. Opponents argued PWC's existing rate-rider protections already insulate residential customers and that blocking development drives investment to surrounding counties. The Chair committed to joint planning commission review with the City of Fayetteville and signaled openness to revising moratorium language. Public hearing closed; board moved to deliberation and then a separate rezoning case. No final vote is captured in the available transcript. ## Substantive Analysis ### Concrete policy proposals raised by speakers Beyond support/oppose, several speakers offered specific drafting language the board could adopt. These deserve their own pass when the ordinance is drafted: | Proposal | Source | Why it matters | |----------|--------|----------------| | Define data-center categories — exempt small/web-hosting; regulate hyperscale & high-capacity AI separately | Isaac Alfaro (#12) | Tim Bryant's PWC defense rests on existing rate riders that may not actually cover hyperscale loads; the distinction matters for the ordinance | | Extend moratorium to **3 years** | Trish Wyman (#14) | Argues 1 year is too short for impact studies + ordinance drafting + public engagement | | Require disclosure of *all* parties involved (developer, shell company, operator, financier) at application | Speaker #13 | NC pattern of shell-company purchases that hide the actual operator | | Ban NDAs on data-center matters between county and applicants | Speaker #13 (AI Now Policy Institute) | Transparency floor | | Mandate water/energy/noise impact studies in application | Speaker #13, Danielle Kunz, Nicholas Plyne | Currently not required | | Special-use permits (not by-right approval) even on industrial-zoned land | Speaker #13 | Forces public-notice trigger | | Enforcement teeth beyond $1k fines | Speaker #13 | "$1k fine is nothing for a $1B company" | | Community benefit agreements as a condition of approval | Danielle Kunz | Jobs, school partnerships, training programs | | Independent environmental and PFAS testing pre-discharge | Nicholas Plyne | Cape Fear River already under contamination scrutiny | | Five "non-negotiable pillars": water, air, power, noise, community benefits | Danielle Kunz | A drafting framework, not just concerns | ### Post-meeting alignment between opposing leads — common ground on category nuance After the public hearing closed, Speaker #12 **Isaac Alfaro** (pro-moratorium-but-make-it-specific; spoke with technical authority as someone who operates both medium-capacity web servers and high-capacity AI/GPU servers) and Speaker #10 **Tim Bryant, CEO of PWC** (anti-one-year-moratorium; spoke with operational authority over the utility) had a follow-up conversation off-record. They aligned on the substantive nuance that **not all data centers are equal** — a point both had made publicly in their testimony from opposite directions: * **Bryant's framing:** small/medium server operations don't pose the residential cross-subsidy risk; PWC's rate riders are designed for genuine hyperscale loads. * **Alfaro's framing:** the *definition* in the current moratorium draft sweeps in home closets and small web-hosting along with hyperscale AI/crypto facilities, which is the wrong target. **Why this matters for the ordinance:** * The two most credentialed/technical voices on opposite sides of the political question agree on the *engineering* question — that classification by capacity and load profile is the right axis. * An ordinance that distinguishes hyperscale (e.g., > N megawatts, > N gallons/day cooling water, or by NAICS classification) from general server use would honor both sets of testimony and is the most likely path to a defensible, durable rule. * This is the single most actionable piece of cross-aisle alignment captured during or after the hearing. ### Points of agreement across the pro/anti split These appeared in *both* supporting and opposing testimony and likely have the most political durability: * **Information gap with City of Fayetteville is a problem.** Multiple speakers (Christy Allen, Speaker #13, Isaac Alfaro) flagged that the city has not opened a parallel comment channel. The Chair acknowledged this and committed to joint planning commission coordination. * **PWC's current customer protections should be examined, not assumed.** Bryant defends them; Isaac Alfaro says his own commercial rate is *half* his residential rate, which complicates the "no cross-subsidy" claim. The ordinance should explicitly cite which PWC tariff provisions apply. * **Recent approvals felt rushed.** Even Van Wye's pro-development testimony acknowledges that storage-units and earlier industrial approvals were a "wake-up call." The moratorium pause is partly about process credibility. ### Critical factual exchange in deliberation (legal + staff) This Q&A reshapes the entire moratorium framing and deserves a dedicated callout: | Question (from the board) | Answered by | Answer | |---------------------------|-------------|--------| | Would the moratorium stop any data-center permits currently in progress? | County legal counsel | **No** — the moratorium would not halt in-flight permits | | Are there any data-center permits currently approved or pending? | County planning staff | **None** — no permits approved or pending | **Implications:** * The moratorium is **prospective only**. It does not catch a pending application, because there isn't one. * The "we have to act fast before someone gets approved" urgency frame (implied by some supporters and challenged by Van Wye) is unsupported by current docket facts. * The "moratoriums only happen when there's a hidden application" implication (Speaker #20 Van Wye) is directly contradicted by staff. * This significantly lowers the stakes of duration: a 1-year vs. 3-year moratorium decision is about how much time staff has to draft a defensible ordinance, not about how many in-flight projects get caught. ### What the Chair specifically committed to Extracted from deliberation; these are the testable promises a follow-up briefing should track: 1. Joint Planning Commission will review ordinance language before adoption. 2. Coordination with City of Fayetteville planning staff before moving forward. 3. Moratorium language is open to revision based on what was heard (duration, scope, exemptions). 4. Public input mechanism continues into the ordinance stage — this hearing is not the only chance. 5. Town hall(s) discussed but not scheduled on-record. ### What is NOT resolved in this transcript * The motion text and vote outcome on the moratorium itself. The session moved from deliberation into the unrelated Hutches rezoning case without a captured vote. * Duration: deliberation references both 1 year and longer; final number unclear. * Treatment of in-flight applications during the pause. * Whether the moratorium will adopt the category-distinction nuance (web/server-room vs. hyperscale/AI) or apply uniformly. * PWC's response to Isaac Alfaro's specific challenge on commercial vs. residential rates. --- ## 1. Opening & Public Hearing Opened How many speakers do you have? **Chair:** They're 24 speakers. Hey, Andrew Greer, it's E, where are you going to present the items? **Staff:** Yeah, for, um, grab orders... I... Grab boy, this equipment in the morning. For the morning, this went to develop a permit for the downstairs, put it back in anywhere in the session, and the morning requested that we bring it for a public hearing for the public dispute, uh, regarding moratorium, uh, and, uh, and it was published in our family, which is... **Chair:** Thank you, Katie Manager. And this time, we'll go ahead and open the audience. We're gonna go ahead and allow speakers to speak, all the ones that have signed up. So I just ask you, be respectful of your time as we went through this. I think it's important that we, as a body, hear from you, uh, as a community, uh, and sort of want to ensure all voices are heard tonight. It's important in this process. I just ask that you be respectful. I know a lot of people have signs, which is great, and I don't have an issue with that. I just actually ask to be respectful of those as you hold them up with the people around you, or if you present them around, you just don't block them now, please. And we can be respectful through this process. But this time, I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Uh, Madam Clerk, will you call the first three? **Clerk:** Steve Harper. Mr. Chair, before you start, just for all the speakers, if you signed in with your address, and it's already documented, you can just state your name. You don't need to state your addresses. This is, uh, live on the Internet. ### Steve Hawkins My name is Steve Hawkins. I like to go over your service. I may take my whole three minutes. But, uh, for the last year, so I've been hearing from kind of, this is your house. It's the people's house. So I'd like you to relax, you have a lot of students to listen to what the people say. You know, and one thing I'm going to say is, from 12 years, you're paying absolutely quick. So I think we need to have somebody to recover from. It's kind of thing. I don't know how they feel about the data sample. And with PWC, then everything, you know, but watch more coffee. And I'm gonna yield my time to the person to speak, and I'm gonna take off this car. Thank you, sir. **Clerk:** Next speaker. Burn David. Fern Davis. Man Park, will you follow the next speaker? Danielle Kunst. Danielle Kunz. Man, first, this call next. Joseph Schwab. **Chair:** Oh, my God. Quickly. ### Danielle Kunz Uh, good evening, commissioners. Good evening. So you're getting past around fire. The fire in front of you shows the tower made of building blocks. Along the base is a space for notes for you. Now you don't want to use that power to illustrate what a smart, responsible status in our policy should look like. Of the foundation of the power, the basic regulations is clear that, like, pull us as it is. I mean, the specifics on your requirements determine where these facilities can go. Okay. In the center is a whole lot labeled permit death. Demonstration hire special permits so that the committees affected by these projects have an opportunity to work with local government, to address the specific impacts and concerns. Each facility makes referrals. Above that are five red pillars: water, airplane, power, and noise. These represent the major concerns the residents have raised, and each one must be addressed. Water protections could include limits on the matter of water facility, as well, to withdraw. Air quality protections could restrict generator use to emergencies and require testing only. Clamber distance to prioritize development on abandoned or existing industrial sites instead of untouched. Power requirements could regard data centers. Did you ever check or prepare a significant percentage of their energy from renewable resources, such as solar power? North protections could include independent sound studies, construction of variants, or other structures reduced from disruptive noises from nearby residents. These five pillars, along with the foundation regulations beneath them, are non-negotiable for me. They are essential for affecting our community. No section of power focus on community benefits, goodness. Walk above it represents samples of those agreements, and could include: One agreement could borrow a meaningful number of jobs, especially the limited high-paying positions, go to local residents, a couple of encounters. Other agreements establish partnerships with colleges, schools, and community organizations. These partnerships can provide server space and technology resources for schools and nonprofits, as well as training programs that prepare residents for advanced careers in the data center industry. Above that is a box labeled Community Investments. He's the best ones to quit funding for schools, infrastructure improvements. One thing is clear to me: if we're going to do this right, our communities at least, one year, the moratorium. I'm going to get the circles. We must take the time to get this right. In fact, our community preserve our resources, ensure that any development provides real, measurable, and lasting benefits for people of how much kind of things. Hear, hear. ### Ron Ross Hey, long roll. Moratorium, another season, and I can't reach in the United States of America... We've never 5,000 data centers in America right now. And it hasn't stopped them using a lot of stresses, you know, a lot of work, noise, and work. You get dinosaurs, you got to be redesigned. Now, can you go to the bill? Once said, walk softly and carry a big stick. I'm gonna use the boat, open all of the boat. I say, walk off and hear a penalty. With all my election days, you can decide he's paying an office. Amen. Okay. **Chair:** What I think about is P fast. We take about, I live in George Creek. I think about... **Clerk:** Sure, sir, address the plate, please. I can hear you. And everything, and I don't want to see this right to another few facts. ### Speaker (unidentified) If somebody makes a solar power run one average gas center, it would take 500 football fields to run one gas center, so 4 powers out. Oh, thank you very much. You have a tough job, and I just wanted to, what's my opinion, I will thank you very much. I'll take care. Thank you. ### Speaker (unidentified — #5) *(Originally mis-labeled as the Chair during synthesis. Content — listing recent national data-center news as illustrative vignettes — is clearly public testimony, not chair business. Likely the speaker yielded-to by Steve Hawkins or a separately-called name not legible in the audio.)* Are you board? I don't know if you've [seen these] vignettes to share, all of which have been the news just this past couple weeks. I'm summarizing them here to illustrate the gravity of the situation, why this is such a contentious issue. Not just here, but nationwide. In El Paso, Texas, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, just secured deals to build a 1,200,000 square foot, 100 megawatt, hyperscale data center. With hyperscale meaning, this is one of the biggest, which leads up to 1,500,000 gallons of potable water per day in a desert. Moreover, Meta negotiated a deal that would allow a payment of 80% of the city property taxes for the next 35 years. But wait, there's more. El Paso is giving Meta—the city is giving Meta—$12.5 million to improve road infrastructure near the facility. Once finished in 2028, this data center will employ, wait for it, 100 people. Not to be outdone by Meta, in Boxelder, Utah, MAGA Tech Bro oligarch Kevin O'Leary is building a 62 square mile, 9 gigawatt, hyperscale data center that will be one of the largest, if not the largest, in the world. After threatening to arrest demonstrators, county commissioners decided to go into closed session and approved the project despite over 4,000 Utans speaking out against it. It will be twice the size of Manhattan, and use more electricity than the entire state of Utah—the entire state. Raises the nighttime temperatures between an estimated 8 to 12 degrees and divert over 1,900 acre feet of water from nearby ranches. Oh, where is justification? I'm paraphrasing here, but it's essentially so we can show China where the best AI is. This entire project will be subsidized by the taxpayers, even when on the Tucker Carlson podcast, a Russian asset, by the way. Recently, he couldn't give straight answers to what he did not pay for the project. Adding insult to injury, O'Leary went on social media to call the objectors out-of-town, professional, paid protesters who were being bused in and paid by somebody. In Lake Tahoe, Nevada, nearly 50,000 residents were told their utility provider will no longer be servicing them, starting in 2027. Why? Because the energy provider says they needed to direct power to data centers. No, this is not hyperbolic. I have 25 seconds. I'll rush through this. In closing, thank you for listening to the constituents and taking steps in the right direction. My brother proposed a moratorium, and it is a great start. However, I'd like to elicit a response from the board on what is being done to bridge an apparent communication gap between this board and city council down the street. With the understanding that this moratorium and subsequent actions will only apply to non-incorporated areas. ### Teresa Burns Coming. I mean, we're coming to my church, man. Hold on, now, of course. I thank you. Oh my. Okay. Right, thank you for the opportunity to voice my opinion on the data center moratorium. I do not—I am not in agreement at all. The adverse effects far outweigh the benefits. The definition of a moratorium is to halt something. And what I've heard from others who live near that assistance that are already in process: But what I've seen, nothing is being halted. I don't know if you're waiting for the end of this meeting, and, um, I was reviewing the moratorium that was put online. And section termination of the moratorium, which felt like that term at all. They had a part that said, it not be send its story. And I am—I do not understand what steps to rescinding, and agreed upon, potentially agreed upon, time, for a moratorium, that one would have to go through in order to rescind. I would like to know if the public would be notified. I would like to know if the public will be notified of determination. There is also... with the... proceeding for the data centers, it's obvious that the increase in electricity and in the water system is going to cost. But my question—well, can ask questions. But I feel the citizens of Cumberland County will pick that cost. I don't see PWC or any surrounding providers paying that cost. I don't see the government gain that cost. I don't understand how someone can say that we are benefited by $1,000,000s of dollars, you put these offset by $1,000,000s of tax credits. And these data systems need to be held accountable for any mitigating steps taken to reduce the adverse effects. Someone is going to need to be watching them. Otherwise, what happened in Georgia, which is ridiculous, that that amount of money could just low water could flow away. Someone, a committee needs to be set up to monitor... **Chair:** Oh, sorry. Finish your thought. ### Speaker (unidentified) In answer to them. Thank you, thank you. **Clerk:** Nicholas Plyne? ### Nicholas Plyne First all, thank you, Ruth. Good evening, members of the board of commissioners. Ply was fine. I run an independent immediate company based here in Fayetteville. My work, like the well-being of our entire community, depends on reliable infrastructure, public health, and sound governance. I'm here today, the most concerned, shared by many residents in opposition to these data centers because of their chemical runoff and massive use of that vertical cooling system. First making our water and air worse, adding to the existing burdens of Fort Bragg, and Cape Fear River, where families are already seeing elevated rates, special needs children, and developmental disabilities. These facilities can pull millions of gallons of water daily for cooling, much of it evaporates in the air, potentially carrying concentrated salt, biocides, anachorosis, chemicals, and PFAS-related compounds. The remainder returns as wastewater, strain treatment systems, and enters our groundwater and river through leaching, Richard, and contaminants. Our area already bears heavily. Lazy PFAS contamination from way of the work, Timor, and a more industrial scale discharge. An atmospheric decomposition or even deposit from data centers' operation heightens human exposure, rookie. PFAS compounds cross the placenta and have been linked to studies to neurological effects, developmental delays, immune issues, increased odds of conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, and learning disabilities. Our schools and pediatric clinics are seeing the impact. Most outrageous stuff at all: the very industries contributing to this pollution are often involved in shaping the standards that determine how much contamination we must accept. We cannot trust self-serving levels written by the polluters themselves. How we prioritize the data center where we are only 60% complete and reliable part of a water for elementary schools. We cannot wait years for more studies while our children pay the price. People who say it will preserve clean water and safe air. We therefore demand an immediate moratorium on new data centers, require truly independent health and environmental impact of all cooling chemicals and mandatory advanced treatment technologies, such as reverse osmosis systems and multi-stage filtration, to remove PFAS and other contamination before any water is discharged or available. Economic development must never come at the cost of our children's health in future. I urge you to listen to the parents, teachers, and doctors in this community. Good evening. ### Speaker (unidentified) Good evening. I see each night as a resident, a parent, and just someone who's been trying to learn more about what these projects actually mean for communities long-term. After reading stories, I'll try to me the most, is that the county itself acknowledges serious concerns about what is in our consumption. But the statement that Cumberland County does not currently have a permanent public water supply, while residents are already dealing with Gen X contamination concerns. I appreciate that this board is not rushing into approvals before fully understanding these facilities and meeting the residents' concerns. Moving from now, I'm not here because I dislike technology or because I'm against development. I'm here because I need communities to deserve transparency and for decisions this large to include me. Residents should be able to ask questions about water usage, electrical demand, environmental impact, backup generators, noise, and long-term planning. I think most people in this county are only just beginning to learn how massive these facilities actually are. I support the moratorium because once infrastructure of this scale is approved, the impacts don't just disappear later if we get it wrong. Corporations can change directions quickly, as we are now seeing with the upcoming closure of the Goodyear plant, which is my long-term environmental planning and infrastructure protections matter before approving projects that could permanently impact our community. I believe communities and technology can grow together, but not at the expense of our farmland, clean water, local ecosystems, wildlife, food resources, or our children's future. Thank you. Thank you. **Clerk:** Timothy "Tim" Bryant? ### Timothy "Tim" Bryant — CEO, PWC (Fayetteville Public Works Commission) *(Speaker is the CEO of PWC, Fayetteville's electric/water utility, speaking from current operational authority over the rate-rider mechanisms cited. Prior experience includes Florida Power & Light. Transcript rendered name as "Kenn Bryant." Position: opposes the one-year moratorium; argues PWC's existing safeguards already protect residential ratepayers.)* Good evening, miss. Good evening, Mr. First opportunity to speak. While there have been many cases across this country, and this, you know, for a lot of our data center development has resulted in comparison costs, environmental concerns, equivalent accounting as relates to PWC customers. That is not the case. After you have to see, we have to commit several safeguards to protect the broader community and residential customers for commercial customers such as Fayetteville. To further say about the community, what kind of commission, the direct county staff, to coordinate with data center sign a request with mutually provider, so I just be there to see, without a one-year moratorium. Fayetteville, the PWC, has in place a large nail service rate terror, a large commercial adjustment customer to assure that large customers pay their share to serve electric pay and water loads, to insulate customers. PRC requires large service customers to pay for all of their prescription cutbreaks to serve that load. Performing the slave customers, PWC requests new large customers to hold a limit of credit for other financial security, to pay for our system improvements, to prevent native customers from subsidizing large customers. To address the bog milk concerns, PWC has enforced new responsibility to regulate electric, water, and wastewater services to new commercial adjustment customers, public state, federal regulations, meaning that typical and regulatory disputes have made an enforced locally. Regarding the new dinosaurs, PNMC has been working with it. These data cells require minimal mass of water due to close nuclear existence. For gases require additional powers generation, but these gases are developer owners, paid for that is very just not current customers. That's in those commissions. Currently, that we've been working with for less, I think, four decimals, a sound, a sound of a hum—if you hear that at all. But a black man's attention, a black residential development, data centers do not require heroes, no new schools, no new fire departments, no new water and horse sewer infrastructure. And if it does, they actually pay for those costs. Unlike some other large current public county employers, that says, do pay for property taxes, they do bring high-wage jobs for construction, and throughout their lifecycle. In addition to that, it is great, ancillary businesses who serve and maintain the service, all of this is per community, including running county services, public schools, emergency operations, and community infrastructure. With the median household income of $65,111, Cumberland County is one of the most discretionary counties in the state of Oakland. Unlike the more what kinds of go through life, don't look down these all available safe industry options for near survival. New data says can be cited in red safer. Thank you. **Clerk:** Christy Allen. ### Christy Allen Wrong turn, door. How do you need commissioners? Good evening. My name is Christiane Allen, and I want to start a game by telling you a story. This past weekend, my husband's gotten to an online experiment, but never rested without process. My husband... But instead of leaving there, we met at a meeting together for brunch to discuss everyone's different perspectives. We were there for more than two hours. Frankly, it ended up being one of the most productive conversations I'd had on this issue. It reminded me that despite the polarization we often see online, most people are not trying to bite each other. They simply want to understand how growth can occur responsibly without harming the community. In our first conversation, my new friend brought up, we need the same concerns, we embraced her client. And I agreed with her that most of the concerns were entirely legitimate. In fact, I think we all realized we agreed on far more than we initially expected, once we moved beyond the online debate and had the opportunity to discuss the issues in detail. For background, I currently serve on the board of directors for the Fayetteville, Cumberland County, Iconic Fellment Corporation, and the Greater Bacle Commer. And I'm also the president of the North Carolina Utilities Association. Because the utility industry is also regulated by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, which is the same body overseeing many of our power and water systems. I regularly work directly with equivalent UC commissioners and staff and build, and have developed a stronger feeling of how these large infrastructure systems are coordinated and regulated over time. Because of these roles, I also know that many of these concerns are already being asked to study by local and statewide planning, utility, and economic comic motors. For that reason, I would encourage the board to ensure that whatever timeline is chosen, that it is driven by the actual work remaining, rather than buying artificer and time frame. While a personal worry of the year may be longer than necessary, and could create additional legal vulnerability if not carefully justified, the duration should ultimately match the specific work staff has conveyed core data utility providers, aggressorogenics related water challenges, and develop lethal, defensive, expensive standards. At the end of the day, the public is not protected by timeline 11, the public is protected by whether the process is precise, technically grounded, and April producing forcible regulations that will still hold up first. I'd also encourage the board to ensure that future regulations distinguish between different types of facilities. Cumberland County has a new footprint. There is a main difference between smaller enterprise with best work facility that based our military duty, and a high-impact, corrective currency mining operation, or hyper-scale AI canvas, consuming hundreds of megawatts of power. Their impacts are not the same, and a blanket, ready, reported fresh, covering anything, and consequences for the long-term economic aid of force. Additionally, to ensure the moratorium is legally durable, I would encourage the board to finalize the ordinance with a clearly defined calendar day, specific deliverables, and correctly cross-reference in section four of the current draft. It should be two. At the end of the day, the war crime wasn't cut to public, but he was Stanley the challenge. And in conclusion, I believe the public is best protected by a process that's deliberate, precise, and defensible. We should base the timeline on the actual work required, so we can protect our environment and community, while also ensuring Cumberland County remains thoughtful, competitive, and hard-looking. Thank you. **Clerk:** Don't do my mercy. Isaac Alvaro. ### Isaac Alfaro Thank you for the authority, and, um, to follow up on that nuance. I want to provide my perspective. Um, I'm Isaac Alfaro, I'm a business owner. I'm an active duty service member, a homeowner, and importantly, I'm a voter in Cumberland County. I've experienced managing medium-capacity servers for common web applications, and I have experienced managing multiple high-capacity servers for AI processing, using high-end GPUs on which are these in question, right? I am a tech enthusiast, and like many here, I use AI daily. However, I'm here to support the moratorium and ask for the nuance that the previous people just spoke about on better defining which data centers are going to be impacted. Currently, in the definition provided, it covers data centers, servers, which provide just web services, provides databases, telecommunications, defense services. These are data centers that house servers that I have housed in my home closet. Those are the ones that Mr. Tim from PWC mentions a slight hum. The high-capacity data servers are nothing like a slight hum. Those are a jet engine. Just one of those servers takes up more electricity than my entire house. More than that, although I do appreciate PWC's commitment to some of these infrastructure requests from any new data centers. Currently, where I house the high-capacity data centers in Fayetteville, I pay nearly half the rate as I do with my residential rate at home. I am not against AI or other applications of high-capacity data centers. I am against large stakeholders expanding their wealth on the backs of residential ratepayers. I am against the persistent false promises of no rate hikes and ample jobs. The high-capacity data centers industry does not produce long-term job numbers in comparison to the drain on our infrastructure. Thank you. ### Speaker (unidentified — #13) *(Originally bundled into Isaac Alfaro's turn. Distinct content — references "I emailed to all of y'all" and cites the Southern Environmental Law Center and AI Now Policy Institute — indicates a separate organizer/advocate speaking next.)* So... found Do you want us to turn off saying, um, to PWBC, and, uh, Fayetteville Cumberland Icon Wealth Corporation. No offense to either the organizations, but I'd like to acknowledge that both of them will offer AI data centers coming to our community, and the economic development corporations—the same work that quietly brought a Duke Energy executive and data center consultant to speak to residents about data centers before we even heard a word from our local governor. That part. So, I don't know, um... So, I remember passing a minimum, like, a one-year moratorium, and that's a recommendation that came from our organizations' discussions with the Southern Environmental Law Center. Um, they have produced a mock timeline that I emailed to all of y'all, so I'm not gonna spend my time going over that, but it does include time for, um, the feedback sessions, town halls, um, things like that, which is the most critical piece missing from my local government's response. Y'all did a great job, but your counterparts at the city of Fayetteville still have not opened up an avenue for the public to provide feedback. So we'll help those folks accountable. Um, and I'd like to share some policy recommendations from the AI Now Policy Institute. Um, ways that the county can ensure transparency with the public. So, number one, ban non-compete agreements—or sorry, non-disclosure agreements—for the county or on issues specifically pertaining to data centers. Create minimum transparency requirements as a part of the application process. So that can require studies on water, energy, noise usage, and mitigation, onsite addition, require that the name of all companies involved in a data center project, including the developers, shell company, the operators, the financiers, that needs to all be upfront and honest, because we saw—we've seen all across North Carolina—developers coming in, buying companies. We have no idea how company is putting a data center there. The public finds out after the fact. Um... We also need to... I would like to see the Kathy for this... for any tax incentives. These are $1,000,000,000 companies that are not yet profitable. AI is not profitable. We should not get public money to them. We should also not allow data centers to develop by right, even on industrial land. We need special use permits with mandated public notices and, um, multiple public, uh, town halls and hearings. Um, and the county should also establish enforcement mechanisms. So, y'all have to go beyond just fines if people break whatever rules they all set out. A small $1,000 fine is nothing for a $1,000,000,000 company. ### Trish Wyman Who did you determine and members of Permanently Family Board? Good evening. My name is Trish Wyman. I'm from a Lake County resident, a 22-year Army soft veteran, an author, and a business intelligence analyst at a finance technology company that uses AI every day, and we have experts on AI. I'm in support of the minimum 3-year moratorium on new data center development applications. The county has time to evaluate impacts, establish clear ordinances, and ensure the public understands what is being proposed before irreversible decisions are made. These facilities are not ordinary commercial developments. Modern AI data centers are among the most resource-intensive forms of infrastructure being built in it, particularly in terms of water and electrical demands. Our region already takes its concerns regarding key fasts and campaignations with their river system, pressure on water infrastructure, and recurring drought conditions across North Carolina. More perspective: Fayetteville uses approximately 22 million gallons of water per day. Recently, in Georgia, a large data center project reportedly drew nearly 30 million gallons of water through unauthorized connections before residents discovered the issue, which led to extremely low water pressure. Incidents like this highlight why strong safeguards, oversight, and long-term planning are necessary—if necessary—before approving projects at this scale. Growing concerns exist about enormous energy demand associated with AI data centers. They built PDC, reported appeal system demand of approximately 421 megawatts in 2025. While some hyperscale AI data centers can require well over 100 megawatts on their own. Residents are already experiencing electrical rate increases, and utilities across the country are warning that rapid data center growth possibly requires substations, transmission infrastructure, and initial guide operation, and will ultimately impact ratepayers. These projects also raise concerns regarding imminent domain for transmission corridors, noise and light pollution, and long-term impacts on rural character, only life. Be it felt, forebread, and source, you become... That is in our development. The projects move forward simultaneously across the region, the impact is shared water resources, infrastructure, and power systems become cumulative. And while these developments are massive in scale, they often create relatively few furnished jobs compared to the long-term infrastructure burden they place on communities. A 3-year moratorium is responsible governance. It's either a complete—it gives our county time to gather into the data, establish protective ordinances, engage in public transparently, and make informed decisions that protect residents long-term. Thank you for your time. ### Antelon Franklinson Good evening to our commissioners. Good evening, good evening. And to my fellow attendees. I am Antelon Franklin, a worker within the city of Fayetteville and organizer with the party for socialism and liberation, and a citizen of Cumberland County. I have in full support of the data center moratorium because I care for the people of my city and my county. I am begging those same care to be exhibited by those who have taken up the duty to listen to, work for, and serve them. I want to stress that a moratorium is a pause. That's what gives those leading us the opportunity to do just that. It would allot the time needed for our officials to listen, work, serve. That's something that we need right now. It's way to see that times are hard for most, and this does not exclude the citizens of Cumberland County. We have seen what happens when little regulation is put in place to ensure the safety of the people and other forms of life that inhabit it. We see this clear day when looking at the feedback. I keep your room. Mm hmm. I feel the need to reiterate the glaringly obvious point that people seem willing to leave on the back burner when it comes to our environment: we quite literally need this terrain under our feet, and the air in our lungs, and water to consume. --- ## 2. Public Comment (continued) ### Abby Mills We want to continue our existence from this planning. Everyone here is old enough to understand that. And if, for some unfathomable reason, we keep permitting the same harmful, invasive intruder into our yard—mm hmm—that essentially requires massive amounts of purified, treated water. They need this water to cool down chips and to generate the electricity necessary to power these plants. And once the water has served its purpose, it is sent back where it came from. Trust me when I say that we don’t want to be paid out of pocket for our own business version. Do not want it, and do not need it. We do not need to be sticking another Band-Aid on the environmental bullet wounds our county is facing. We do not need to run the risk of further particulate pollution, preparatory cardiovascular impact, worsened water quality, packing growth—any larger user—the destruction of public forest and recreational land, definitely impacted waterways, these plated... you know, these pregnant... We can’t afford that right now. We need to be directing our attention on surgically removing the sicknesses that are infesting every aspect of our lives. Reconsideration and proper planning via moratorium allowed us to do this in relation to the AI system matter. Hey, Canton, King’s Mountain, Boom, Clyde, Rubber, Durham, Orange County, Gates County, Sweden County, Rowan County, Watauga County, the Eastern Band of the Cherokees—all these cities, counties, and even the tribes in North Carolina that have placed moratoriums or bans on centers altogether. They’ve been able to come to this conclusion. We can do this. It is possible. All it takes is for the people of Cumberland County to listen, to work for, to research. --- **Chair:** Madam Clerk, please call the next three. **Clerk:** Christina Reeves. ### Christina Reeves At a park, please call the next speaker. --- **Clerk:** Eric Little. ### Eric Little Behavior. I deserve a little... half of the downside the belt burn... and... think whatever. I focus on the land side of the development—homecock, with, like, powered land, with the entitlements, to the, you know, the geotax and all those things like that. We find the power, until there’s some things of that nature. And, you know, a lot of people here, I mean, they have good points, right? I mean, in Utah, in Texas, they’ve been doing it. Oh, you got to remember that the local government approved that. They need to understand that you guys aren’t them, you know. Knowing what’s going up is standard. The data center goes up, the local government, EDC, they know what’s going on. The power companies know what’s going on. You know, we’re working on a project with 50 acres in regular county, where our client wants 225 megawatts, which is below average. You know, everybody has to 100 with a lot for data center. 450 is probably a good average. Well, their 50 is looking for 225 megawatts. They’re not going to use more water than a typical altus—a few 100 gallons a day. They’re using immersion cooling, and basically, it’s a lazy river going around the server, then they go through an exchange, and it’s kind of cool to back out in this traditional air conditioning. So there are... there’s a lot of advancedness that it seems like, you know, the people previously might not have mentioned it. So technology data center, you know, artists today, the last couple years, as far as horrible was closer 10 years, 20 years ago. I understand the technology. So there’s certainly a need for data centers in general. you know, hopefully to get a work for him. For me, it does not pass, but, you know, also I think, you know, the taxes and the work that comes with data centers, it’s an interesting time because it takes about 1500 employees over 15, 18 months to build a data center. And, of course, there’s a lot of tax revenue. The data center, for some kind of tax premium. But it’s a good year—Fort Bragg closing next year, 17,000 people are going. Oh, boy. You know, talking to people about giving a tax rebate for potential data center and making them earn, say, you know, you approach them: hey, we’ll give you a tax rebate, however, you need to employ unemployed Cumberland County residents for 500,000 man-hours. And then also it’s time to hire people full-time. You go to Fayetteville Tech, you know, type of Indian college, I would jump into... So, you can... you can do this appropriately and safely in a pleasant way where, yeah, it’s... there’s certainly a lot of examples of, as I’ve done wrong. However, you guys have a chance to do it right. Show us the right one. --- **Chair:** You live here? **Speaker (unidentified):** Three hours, correct? **Chair:** I ask you to be respectful of the speakers. Sorry, do you everything else? Oh, okay. Hey, bye. **Clerk:** Jennifer Jackson. ### Jennifer Jackson I mean, it’s Jennifer Jackson. I mean, to the lonely city of Fayetteville. They’re three years ago from up north. We left up north because the place we lived in did not listen to the citizens, was making poor choices, and causing environmental pollution along with Kilner’s children’s aspirations to believe that they could grow up to be somebody. Our children found it here, that they saw their potential of becoming who they are meant to be in God’s eyes here. And say it, they’ll be packed up. I hear about this and it breaks my heart because the suit that I believe we’re here for today—I’m still catching up tomorrow. They took my long season to art apologize. The thing we’re talking about is in East Fayetteville, where I live. Right in Vander. We already have problems with our water pressure. We already have properties just as a country with brown and everything else. We have rolling power outages going on in Oat Mills and Lake Rim. So our infrastructure is already struggling. So we’re gonna take something that’s struggling and add onto it. With the 2 facilities being considered in the East Bay, which consists of 230 acres, and that’s approximately 500 megawatt facilities together when they combine it together. We need approximately 500 megawatts per hour—as 4,380,000 megawatt hours a year, about 350 to 400,000 homes. The scale of power demands is roughly equal to... like, the grid capability is... um... half people’s generation, keep generated capability of a standard nuclear power plant. There’s no statistics about team drives. The energy draw, running equivalent to over 3.5 million standard refrigerators or powering a small town, small to midsize town. The efficiency factors—um—the facility itself consumes 500 megawatts for the IT hardware. Additional energy is consumed by the facility operations, like the heavy beauty, coin, and power distributing. Depending on a metric known as power use efficiency, it can vary. So there’s no way to really put a pinpoint on that. Data centers typically consume between 4,000,000 and as much—well, as low as 4,000,000 and as much as 20,000,000 liters, roughly, which is roughly about 500,000 gallons of water per megawatt, annually for cooling. The large scale, which is over 100 megawatts—hyperscale data centers in the U.S. typically consume around 2 million liters of water, which is 552... 52... over 52 million gallons of water. The electricity, they did special rate, tax exam, hitting on the customer, and we end up paying because they have to upgrade the grid and the grid gets spread out to everybody. The house is only when they build it. Oh, you don’t want to hear it? It’s all right, I got you. I appreciate y’all. I know your job’s not easy, but thank you. But you should... I would say, you should actually just cease and dismiss until you guys get more information. **Chair:** Thank you, ma’am. So you have... Every speaker, they’re full 3 minutes. We’re not gonna give you one all, but I’m allowing people to speak who... in a good thrill? Thank you. Madam Clerk, please call the next speaker. **Clerk:** Richard Van... Wye? ### Richard Van Wye I’m here to give my opinion on the one-year moratorium on data centers. Right now, I don’t have anything in nowhere or the other, because I don’t have enough information. My observations are this: I’ve been here 48 years, permit residue for 35 years. When I first came here, the economy was based on Fort Bragg, on shops and truck stops. Today, since then, there’s been some movements worth changing that. They came up and stormed on the county for about 6 months for the storage units—good. So the wake-up call: they needed to do something, being responsive here was for industrial parts. Now we’re looking at closure—good, good. I want the objection to a data center is that they use a lot of water. So the questions I have are these: Is Fayetteville still signing on to the plan for Puquette Marina to take water from the Cape Fear River and not to turn it? Okay? And his proposed aqua center, digging in an order amount of water away from the residents, and he just can visit, but we’re not hearing a whole lot about those, okay? Another objection is the amount of power needed to run the plan, but they’re relying on the local power grid. Then I agree with everyone’s concerns. They’re providing a rosen hour for some miraculous—it would be a problem. In others, jobs: once completed, they will need IT people, electricians, farmers, HVAC, et cetera. These are not low-paying jobs. You have enough time, right? You do, you can do that—get out there, get in school, and get certification. The last one is this: If you’re considering a moratorium, that tells me somebody has already applied or been in the process of life information to build. Yeah, that’s happening. Moratorium, like a proposal. So do you... political speech. Lets get this on the back burner or out of sight, so we don’t have to worry about it and reveal with it when people get forget about it. I’m going with this: You know, pies, Fayetteville, those counts. Every time a corporation looks to move into the area, somebody raises objections. That is their right, and that would have been their right to do so. And how many good-paying jobs have moved to the county surrounding us? You’re gonna keep listening to a vocal few, keep doing this—not just the future. Remember when Tommy is going to end up in the inner city county, but no one wants to invest it because of all the problems you go with it. And surrounding counties are gonna be the ones that prosper. Last thing would be: this conversation is reminding me of 1910 when we got in County for having discussion about horses and cars, and we had some time saying you had to disassemble your car if the horse was there, moving around north, and then you could be a bunch of your car. And it’s not a bad... it’s not going anywhere. Right? Better come up with a way to deal with it. Thank you, sir. **Clerk:** And of course, we call the next speaker. Sarah? --- **Chair:** Hello, my girl, please. Hello? ### Sarah [?] Close to Dun Road, uh, where there’s apparently two data centers, and I would like to take this opportunity to speak against data centers, and the dangers, and make the best pick that opportunity, and the overall health of the environment is to implement its nature and wildlife. I [am] deeply concerned about the quiet plans to approve that hear. Um, not the county, but, um... but, um... when I understand, the, the, the, um, the Declaration of Independence state, the, the, the, the... and... It is the right of the people to look up also a model... ...and, in, in, the, the, the, the... Residents near gas members have been ready inv... nausea, igo, and legal scares the sounds that they cannot hear. His source is infrasound, low-frequency vibrations that go unprotected by our hearing, but still affect the human ideology. Then there is this sound that is constantly heard by those around. The average noise level in server areas of data centers may reach as high as 92 to 96 decibels. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noise about 70 decibels—decibels—over time, you start to damage hearing. Keep in mind, this noise never turns off. Want to invite your friends over for a cookout? Forget it. Want to relax on your porch after a long workday and read a book? No. Your children are playing outside in the backyard and you want to call them in, but they can’t hear you. Their little voices are also being drowned out. People were being pushed off of their members, another person. Groundwater is being contaminated. Even closed-loop systems contaminate the aquifers. Cumberland County has already been hit hard, but it be frustrated due to the contamination of the Cape Fear River, causing cancers and other health problems that are getting engaged. Our water system cannot handle the request that we already have. Residents in Kearny County, New Jersey, are living a nightmare. They have groundwater ruining their clothes. They can’t consume their tub water. Their electric bills are into the rig, and does into the lights never turn off at night. The air pollution is sending them to the ER for asthma. There’s a data center being built in Georgia, requiring speech... energy, that they are forcing homeowners out using eminent domain. Think about the others close, buying chefs, industries, property values are funded. I’m not able to finish, but I do add that you put an immediate call from building their data centers and from... like, yes. --- **Clerk:** Ashley Tucker. ### Ashley Tucker On the one side of Mayenville. Um, I’m a concerned resident for all of the reasons that you guys are incurred, just thinking, but I’m also a local real estate agent. I’m concerned about how these, uh, data centers, both of them currently considering in traditional ones, would affect the things I work with everything. Even before new AI films, and seeing the housing, of course, here is very tight. Very interesting, you say, those current consolidated plans—the city, which also affects the county as well, has a shorter shortage of affordable housing, particularly small units that would accommodate both film households first moving out, higher-risk households, to mitigate cost of burdens, and to reduce the homelessness. A substantial increase in affordable housing limits would be essential without these efforts. Affordability challenges will resist. I think many households will are building to disability, and it’s constant strand. I know that’s a topic that had to work on the credit. The report also notes that many households already spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Maybe it’s difficult to save, invest, and stay. The average sale price of a current resale home is $258,000 with an average price of a new construction home paid 382. If you talk to any builder in town, as I know you all do, they’ll tell you that 25 to 30% of the cost of the construction is the cost of a lot it’s built on. The problem with AI companies retaining pay well above market value for large purposes of land: $150,000 an acre in Ohio, $400,000 in Utah. When that happens, residential developers, especially those, those are affordable healthcare stuff. We’ve seen it in place like Northern Virginia and Ohio, where skyrocket land prices have almost made it impossible to build further. There’s also another consequence that is doing it correctly: Homeowners whose properties are near the amount of facilities cannot sell their homes at pure value or at all. The constant noise, the industrial appearance, and increased environmental problems, babies, things are less desirable. Families you spend years building equity, they find themselves stuck and unable to sell or forced to take a huge loss. And not only affects the family of selling, but also blocks these phones from turning over to new families, further tightening. We already loaded supply of housing. As someone who helps families navigate huge life transitions, if they go every day at most strongly, that while growth is very important, it cannot come at the extent of affordable housing. Once land prices shift and those changes, it’s almost impossible to undo. I meanal I felt that supports the residence thous affordable and protects the quality of life in our county. I strongly urge you to math at least for one year or more moratorium on any data center development, to put solid protection. --- **Clerk:** Over here. Larry Fluff. ### Larry Fluff Good. I’m just good to be here. I know you’re sitting on the stage where you’re from. Other than, uh, see, grew up estate in Zoom Vander. And anybody that knows that most of those houses in Seabrooks, it’s an over subdivision. They have no water lines. And most of the houses here have no water lines. Not for data centers, but I’m gonna say this: You’re an have water lines up if your don’t even plan building a mini plant. Because our water is already contaminated, and they want us to get a reverse osmosis in our wells. Well, that doesn’t pull all the chemicals out. I’ve had to replace my hot water heater twice now. I think the only one I know that. So you’re going to have to think of all the infrastructure before you even go ahead with anything. My wife also asked me to have something, or she’s not here tonight: Why are they putting a gas liner right now? Why are they cutting this big gas line? They say it’s more than Wellington, but it’s kind of hard to believe with what’s going on. You know, a lot of construction workers out there, excavators. I hope that nobody is doing one thing and or being told another thing. You know it. I’m pressed... What’s your most important thing that this country are founded on? Are the individuals liberty or freedom? Without that, we are nothing anymore. We’re no better than China. China, their people have no freedom. Data centers are used as a collective to control them. I don’t trust them, I never will. We’ve done great the last 250 years. We don’t need them. Thank you. We’re going. --- **Clerk:** Glenn Hosman. ### Glenn Hosman Good evening. Good evening, evening. Thank you so much for letting us all speak. I know you’ve gone right over 10 minutes, I really appreciate it. Um, I... there’s already been a lot of facts, so rather than reading all my notes out to you, I’d like to take the time to stay a couple points. It was just recently published that our seafoam has the highest key fact. I was awarded reaction related to Barcake River, and I thought that was into it. We already have the military faith here, which I’m very grateful for our military community on military brat. In my room, in my blood, voting, are impacted by the noise. So adding additional factor without deeply understanding what that could do to the community like an overpect and not protect us. Um, the governor drops... weird. Sorry. Um, he just recently said, um, reevaluate whether or not he made computers giving an act break to the data pattern. Because we no longer need to hold them. We’ve got so many already... already so many’s being built. You don’t give any tax. So at that being evaluated, and maybe reevaluated, maybe we can take one more chorios and really take the time to understand what the impact could be. I spent my entire adult career, and even prior to that, I was hearing all the way through high school, working with Medicaid and Medicare population. I know what time it takes. I understand, like, the amount it takes to pull that data and really understand how it impacts people out to people. And we’ve just been the last two years that closed-loop system on the scale supporting AI sectors and big infrastructure data centers. We don’t really know what those impacts to be. And they use paybacks in their salt, they’ll contain fully to them. Now you put in warm feedback in our community because it’s super heat. And then that heat will sleep out into our ground. It’ll sweep out into our air. If they have it won’t do that, it’s illogical. It just seems like an absence of truth to say that, but it’s more wooden ever. So for those factors, for my own personal work experience, I’m working with already underserved and normal community, knowing what time it takes to do research, implement change. I really begged me to do it because we are more oriented. Thank you. --- **Chair:** Yeah. Who? Justin threw it. ### Justin [?] All right, thank you, everybody, for coming today. What is discussion? I just want to start off and get straight to the point. Apparently, North Carolina is locked in one of the most severe droughts has seen since 2008. I want to say that again. Currently, North Carolina is like one of the most severe droughts our region has seen since 2008. Almost every single one of our counties is feeling the strain, and communities across the state are already sounding the alarm. On May 15th, Charlotte Water officially enacted stage two mandatory water restrictions. Statesville is at stage 3 right now. Under these restrictions, everyday citizens are micromanaged, right? No residential car washing, no power washing sidewalks, and no building swimming pools. If a human being breaks these rules, it’s a $100 fine under stage two, spiking up to $600 repeated offenses in stage three. Currently, my agriculture team and I run apply at the table Community Garden. We grow produce for ourselves, our community, and our elders, some of whom have a runner, who, on the exact same, we have to want to use. It’s about stage 2 rules: technically still allow us to hand-water our crops. The long-term threat to our water security is terrifying and real. One of the store owners, if the drought worsens the restrictions tight... What happens to the families who depend on that harvest to eat? Why are citizens being policed over their daily lives, while massive industrial appropriations are allowed to cite the tons of gallons of water a day? Oh, yes. Fuck. I mean, it isn’t just our water up on the sea. Our electrical grid is facing unprecedented. On May 4, 2026, the North American Electrical Reliability Corporation issued a rare level 3 alert. Only the 3rd in NERC’s 58 history. Only the 3rd. This emergency alert was triggered by volatility nature of the large loads, specifically AI data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities. Any RC explicitly warned that these massive operations are causing extreme instability. Threatened widespread, domino effect of blackout crossing public group. If the group fails and the water infrastructure collapses, the data centers don’t suffer. Their executives don’t go hungry. The people who suffer are the neighbors. The elder, our local food systems. So I have to ask this counselor: why are you, why are you piloting an appropriate loan for 18 miles? Amen. Woo! What are the actual regulations on these corporate digits in our region? And why are humans beings, why are us as humans be restricted and penalized before these massive techs? Currently, right now, data stairs have no restriction for human food. Yeah. This isn’t a theoretical problem. We already see communities in Texas have their water tables and energy grids plus to the brink of collapse by unmitigated corporate data and crypto operations. My favorite fish, finish your thoughts, right? This is a battle for the bear survival and stuff the land of our community. These facilities are not built to service. They vote for data collection, surveillance and corporate property. Yeah. As a community, we have no choice in the old environment. We have to secure our own food, our own water, and own local suffers reliance, because history has shown time and time again that the systems aren’t really bores. Thank you, sir. And we all, and we all we know. So I just counled one final question: Will you stand up and protect the people who elected you or you, will you hand our public resources over to the higher corporate men? Thank you for thank you. --- **Chair:** Better part, recall. There are no more speakers. We had seven residents that provided comments online, and they have been emailed to each other. I will entertain any questions for our staff around the moratorium or any comments. And as we’re looking at that, I want to thank all the speakers for counting out tonight and sharing your thoughts around moratorium has been that was placed before the public. If there’s any comments. I’m pretty sure I am to recognize. **Council Member [?]:** Mr. Chairman, I’m excited to come on. Thank you, as soon as this is coming out, giving us a lot of things to think about, how I’m going to take all of that into consideration and making a decision. You got a lot of emails today with a lot of information to read over. Be able to see. I know that you are looking hurt, and we sat here, and I feel like you know nobody else did, too, and heard and takes every one of those comments, uh, seriously, and we’ll take that, uh, make sure that, uh, we get it over. **Chair:** Thank you, Mr. chair. **Council Member [?]:** Thank you, Mr. Adams. Premission for a pleasure right now. **Chair:** Mr. I would ask staff at this time, and I don’t know who to break through, but even if we pass moratorium pursuing, we didn’t have any effect on anything that perfectly cooperative empty. Does everybody, if you know, there’s been nothing come through? So, if we pass it, we’ll go with, will it help something that’s unknown? Just your turn, if you want to respond to that, or send it in? **Staff [?]:** And I think it’s currently in law. Speaking of our families, like, they’re, uh, uh, the uh, session does recognize that there is a progressive an issue or the circumstances that were, that you are in place, where the Orient would not stop you from... I don’t know, complain. **Chair:** Oh, right. **Council Member [?]:** Follow-up question: staff know of any permits or anything that like that has been issued on the... **Staff [?]:** There’s nothing ongoing. His body is for... **Chair:** Commissioner Tyson, you’re recognized. **Council Member Tyson:** Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As far as I’d like to say thank you for everybody that came out. You can tell them that all these people are very well prepared and we will put sure that... You know, Mr. Chairman, as a raised brief president, I see firsthand the struggles that this community’s had with already, Kamors, E-Pass, the divination. I know you’ve seen it. And this form’s been moving expeditiously to work towards getting clean, safe, drinking work for a residence of our account, Mr. James. And I was talking to somebody today about this and they were asking me some questions about, well, why are y’all considering this? And I said, well, imagine, let’s take you back to the 1980s. And imagine a similar conversation happening with a poor woman. But dangerous, that he has, those looks that come over, and how we could have put things in place that could have helped manage and shape. Okay, maybe. So I think in college, when it’s forward, you have a very thorough, very meticulous process. we really through this. And I just would like to say, too, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate your leadership in your initiative, hosting the special meeting that she called for, that we had as a precursor in this meeting over a month ago, to continue to work towards coming up with reasonable, safe regulations that this community can itself. So as industry looks to come here, we get the best industry partner for kids, not that. I appreciate the time. Thank you, Mr. Tyson. **Chair:** Commissioner Patel, you recognize. **Council Member Patel:** chairman. I as I look out, I want to just thank everyone for throwing out to speak. whether it was today, or briar, or not, you know, it’s like multiple individuals, quite frankly, I guess, right now, on things that I’m glad that you shared with those because there is a lot of information. I one we try and I do research on point out. We need to get it right because if we had done that in the 1980s, we would... as. Thank you, Commission, by Sherman Jones right now. **Council Member Sherman Jones:** Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to say that I’ve heard out here today a lot of questions of which you still have been answered. I am a big person for that of wanting town forms, and also that an individual believes in town halls. I heard a lot of people stay today, because the only way that you can, you know, get all of the data on both ends is just that, you know, we appreciate listening to you all. However, the questions still have not been answered. I would like to see about the awards and ingredients, to give direction to the staff, to put in place to see about having at least 2 or 3 townhomes in different areas as we have Westfield, and also at North Fairville, Central Fairville, so that just actually take place, not only for us listening, but to have individuals that are more, I guess you can say, it’s specialized in this, to be able to have a form in townhome, which is both engagements. for us to be able to answer some of these questions. It’s what I would like to see how far a staff do, I think. I appreciate that everyone are coming here today. However, again, as we know, we have over 250,000 people in our community, and the great thing about town halls as well is forms, it allows us the opportunity to have these held different parts of town and to, as well, engage that of questions and answers and not just that of the same. So that’s what I would like to be important, from getting me wrong, so I feel like further, definitely, of discussions needed to be held, of which they’re able to be able to provide questions and answers. So I would like to rest and put the staff to, I’ll be able to put some of those panels in place in our many different areas of town. Thank you, Mr. Jeremy. **Chair:** Thank you very much, John. Bored, just a couple comments from the chair, if I may. First, I do want to, again, thank all the speakers. As Commissioner Tyson alluded to, this board’s been very deliberate about our process. We understand the impact on the community. We’ve tried to be very thoughtful about the process and listen to all sides and listen to all points, including the emerging things that happen, you know, in the last 48 hours. I think this board heard a lot of things today that some of us probably hadn’t heard before. And some opportunities for us as we moved through a moratorium, potentially maybe even changes to what was published. we heard today as well. I want the listening audience. I want the people here in this room to know that you were heard, you were seeing. And this was not a check the box moment. It hasn’t been with his board, and it won’t end with his board. --- ## 3. Close of Public Hearing & Council Deliberation ### Council Deliberation **Chair:** I think you've seen how we operate in our thoughtful approach, especially when it comes to economic development, public education, or the infrastructure that many of you talk about. So, I also want you to know that we and our staff are working collaboratively with our municipal partners, specifically the city of Fayetteville. Our planning department will coordinate with them as we move forward. One of the things we've talked about is having our joint planning commission begin to look at this ordinance. That is a framework for our ordinances or chain, which ultimately this would go through. If there was an ordinance put in place—not a moratorium, but an ordinance—that's where the joint planning commission would provide feedback from the community. There's a mechanism and a process in place to do that, and it engages the municipalities. So we're committed to that as well. I think we heard a lot about town halls today. We heard a lot about some additional language to our moratorium, not even speaking to the ordinance yet. Because remember, you're going to get an opportunity to give your input on an ordinance as that moves forward as well. I just want to clarify that. So, [Name unclear], I appreciate all your comments. I appreciate you giving me the flexibility and leading this organization to give everyone a voice tonight. I believe that's extremely important. I know each of you do as well. And at this time, unless there's any other item for discussion on this item, we'll go ahead and move forward to the next public hearing. Staff, I believe, from what I understand, this board is going to want to digest this information. We probably have some additional questions for our attorney, as well as staff. And then we'll work on next steps at a future meeting, and we will keep the public directly informed as we have along the way on our next steps. A lot of information was provided here, as well as over the last several weeks since we announced this. And, as well as, you know, they came in a couple hours before the meeting. You kind of... [Unclear]. I get enough direction. More—anything else on this item? All right, I'm hearing none. --- We're gonna go ahead and move to item B: Eastover Fire and Vander Fire District remap. It is a lot. We go pretty quick. I believe I would just ask people to be as fine as you can. We're gonna continue on with our meeting. We need to—all recess, if we need to. Any... I'm more interested to see, because they expect everyone to leave. Quite the same. --- **Staff:** Yeah. Two days. We want—we received a letter from the town that each door will consist in the Eastover Fire District, including all of the town's corporate limits. Surely, there's an area between Rockville Road... It's in the town limits, but it's, uh, town of the [Unclear] Fire Department of National Service. On a petition by the town that he spoke, it's that that peaceful land has been made by the, um, out of town, we—we included in Eastover Fire District. Received a letter from the [unclear] project, and also, um, agree into their, then, live with, and move in the land, move in the NXAs, commute history. The only join that would be approved is that the 4.5 half-pass year approved it to. And if we do a public hearing, which would happen, right? --- **Chair:** I think the meeting—you need to try to leave now, because there's still a number of items. So, staff, can you do a thing—piece of, uh, [unclear] right here, on the map, on the board? Because if I go to the next room... --- **Staff:** Okay. So, you know, how—like, we in the area, right here, with the actual... as a publicarian, Stanford, recommends it to missions to prove the changes to the fire inch of lines, to include this court, the five districts, and the town limits of the [unclear] stolen, and the school projects. --- **Chair:** Questions have— **Council Member:** Yo, I just... I mean, I have a problem. I just want to make sure that for our purposes, no matter what things that we get, you would like—keep your hands, we'll make sure that it's in the minutes. --- **Clerk:** I'm in the same group as how much. --- **Chair:** Yeah, make sure there's not... Anything? No, sir. Can you exercise in your rightness? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. --- **Council Member:** Mr. Chairman, I also did just want to relate to the board. I did have an opportunity to speak with [unclear] from both fire departments, and confirmed the county manager was correct. Both parties are in favor. And just provide a little bit more color: Eastover Fire Department has been—like, so let's just deserve all that. I think, however, mainly they've been getting revenue for doing that. So really, what we're doing tonight, if we approve this, is we're trueing that up, even though based on the computer-generated response that comes out, he started resorting the lights. So I didn't think of that or—thank County manager for bringing this whole... --- **Chair:** Commissioners, any other questions or comments on this? Not—we'll go ahead, open up a hearing. I have a plug for—are there any speakers? We have no speakers. Going to close the hearing. Commissioners, any other questions or comments on the side of me? Hearing none, I'll entertain motions. Commissioner Tyson, you recognize. --- **Council Member Tyson:** Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I make a motion that we change that you still require, and they under fire district, to include the corporate limits of the [unclear] and the Eaststone requires district with the mail attached. --- **Chair:** We got a motion to move that Eastover Fire and [unclear] Fire Districts that—probably sucked in. Any discussion or comments on the motion? Hearing none, I'll ask for your vote in favor. Raise your right hand. You. Thank you. Thank you. King Andrew Greer. And this time, we're gonna take a short 10-minute recess, allow everybody a break and allow the rest of the people to clear out. --- *[Recess]* **Speaker (unidentified):** Still staying? **Speaker (unidentified):** Mm-hmm. **Speaker (unidentified):** How you doing? **Speaker (unidentified):** Good, good. **Speaker (unidentified):** I'm also with a DTA. **Speaker (unidentified):** Good to see you. --- ### James Wilts **James Wilts:** Yeah, I... Like, I put it up there, and I have... All done, all done as soon as already. We're not in Utah, we're not... **Speaker (unidentified):** Really? **James Wilts:** Yeah, that's awesome. I don't even know what the mechanism is. You do? **Speaker (unidentified):** Okay, where it's significantly different. **James Wilts:** I'm sorry. I saw your note. I would have proved that you came up. I can't read my text. Is this phone? Could have came back up, I would have given you more time. **Speaker (unidentified):** No, because I was surprised when I was called, 'cause I was expecting both sides—for everyone that was bored to get out of here, but for those who were against you, the opportunity—but it was all intermixed, but it's okay. **James Wilts:** Yeah, we'll figure it out. I'm glad to give you more time on the line-up. I can't see my text. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** But do this. Call my couple servants. I'll couple services, a text, or email, rather. And let's look at your rate. Both of them. **James Wilts:** No, no, no, but again, no, you guys are... **Speaker (unidentified):** No? No? **James Wilts:** You know, I want you to write an increase, because I'm raising the questions, okay? So I'm not trying to do that. Okay. I would hope my team wouldn't do that to you. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** I, I, I, I, I—if there is a mechanism. **James Wilts:** Right. So, yeah, how much, I don't know what—6 cents, uh, [unclear] is in a rate? And so, so you—so you are at, you were one of the lucky ones with the data center, with the old crypto rate that happened before it got here. So you're benefiting. **Speaker (unidentified):** No. Yeah. Because before I got here, I've been here for years. That rate was put in place because at some time, we were pursuing crypto—like [unclear], whatever their name was, it was long gone, but that's what I didn't qualify for in my comments. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** A lot of the challenging issues that this [unclear] have seen, which you ever seen. Those are before me. **James Wilts:** Yeah. Ma. I put in place, you've had a large loan service rider. That's all right. I'm not getting what I got. So I can't speak to you... how... **Speaker (unclear):** Yep, so weak, Mr. Wilts? **James Wilts:** Yeah. And, well, very cautious about it changing, but I don't want you and your business to leave and go to Moore County, because now you're gonna have to make seven cents—8 cents, right? We have not done a great job as a community in figuring out how to make sure that we are—it shows job-paying, wage-paying businesses stay here. **Speaker (unidentified):** Exactly. They all, again, they all have run off to other communities, and government—it was not our public taxes. We got [unclear] pays, no taxes, and everybody doesn't. They carry that burden. **James Wilts:** But it's around the fact that we can't seem to get anything out of the way for the city and the county. And folks who can, they leave. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** So we got to fix it. **James Wilts:** Yeah. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** My name is [unclear], I totally agree. I do have a great position, got the crypto rate. I think that's where—and I don't know if y'all could do anything else, I would be there for some of the strength experience. On whatever period, still. **James Wilts:** No, I mean, I can... Look, all our major public— **Speaker (unidentified):** So, James, your crypto rate versus your standard rate versus your, uh, your, uh, your on the website. **James Wilts:** Yeah. But I'm a hook. Yeah. I gotta, like, hanging. I don't know about any retaliation. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** No, no, but like I said before, I don't want my residential or federal self—2000 business, necessarily. **James Wilts:** Right. But again, if your data center is going to provide some amount of full-time jobs, if you want it, that would be good. But if you're a one-man band and you're getting that rate, that's not what it was intended for. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** Well, I mean, I can tell you, I can tell you, I'm having a million dollars in the news—the hardware, right? It doesn't require any... The profit margin would be on that, on what you're just looking like, what is any of these bigger competitors? It's enormous. **James Wilts:** You had... Like, I ate one years ago, right downtown? Drains are known to be a huge product market compared to just selling free modeling. **Speaker (unidentified):** Yep. You killed it. **James Wilts:** Yeah, I mean, you're... --- **Speaker (unidentified):** You know, will. **James Wilts:** But it's one thing. The intent—the intent that would make, yeah, you know, give it before 10-plus to encourage high-wage jobs and bring in large property taxes. You know, since you're not paying a huge tax base and you're not employing customers. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** So we've got to win the wrong rate. **James Wilts:** Yeah. By the least... It very well could be. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** And what I bring up there is all of these guys, all of those eyes, the eyes, everything. That's what it was. After it's all done, I get it. Electricians come in. They're lucky bears one day? They're not going bad. You're not, man, you're legal either. Still, but they operate it automatically. All the same people... You're all... **James Wilts:** So, that's what... So, we can do with those guys, unlike what was all you. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** Well, then, our utility 1st Serena, and one was a spot. Yeah, so many requirements. With a smaller phone like yours? It didn't require you to have an extra amount of job. **James Wilts:** The only why do you have to pay extra property taxes to support—you're getting that paper away. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** Yeah, with these large, single 3500, two, 800—is how we make lunch? They will. And they're going to pay for their instructions in the infrastructure. Because they will. Whatever you have is—the way that it's currently working... **James Wilts:** I respect trying to reach... You have so much anything data center. Right. They've got a script. I had a feeling about a sprint. They said, Madison, and it's not— **Speaker (unidentified):** To your point, they need to be more granular than that, because that's for you, as a small, old, [unclear] owner. **James Wilts:** Well, not yet. Stay ready. Are you in the business? **Speaker (unidentified):** No, I'm actually a high composite. **James Wilts:** Mm, for sure. But at my closet, I don't—I have a right now... Like, that's, that's not the... on the same type. Should that be? --- **Speaker (unidentified):** So if I don't know if you all have anything transferred to a match. But I think that is definitely something I buy... **James Wilts:** And they're not all the same, but... **Speaker (unidentified):** The ones that are, the [unclear]... They do... We should not bring these... that are talking about... And it all often is merging together, you know. It's like if you want your web, all that—in reality, it is often cryptocurrency, AI, and okay, I'm proud of gay. **James Wilts:** Yeah, yeah, and those are the ones we need. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** I appreciate it. Thank you like I said— **James Wilts:** Okay, well, that's it. So... We're aligned with this. Well, my only concern was, okay, the oratory of a year. --- **Speaker (unidentified):** Thanks, bro, done with that. Those guys are gonna pick up and go somewhere else. And as I mentioned, $65,000 is our average rate of value. We gotta do --- ## 4. Next Agenda Item — Rezoning Case KCUA 260013 (Hutches property) **Staff:** It sits in the central portion of the county. Yeah, because Benjamin and Heather Hutches, the agents—my dad was the request—to go for more urban residential at Seafree, maybe virtual. So it wouldn’t be, like, plain life industrial. It was just the intent is to correct some existing non-conformities and expand woodworking operations over the site for about 4.31 acres. Just kind of moving pretty quickly since we have long even. So this is the zoning map. You can see this is the parcel that’s in question here. It splits over, please, and said, RR and C3, so it’s actually to establish a unified zoning category on this site, which you can see there’s existing manufacturing mine across the street, and so forth, which you can see as a general cause of residential view in the restaurant that. Uh, so there is water and uh, sewer—it’s POC water and sewer in the year is one of the, one of the site. When you look at the land use plan, it’s a demander—the land use plan, it calls for suburban density residential, and like virtual. It’s not consistent with Miami planning map. So we’re talking both for this, it would be an automatic plan change to that, and then adjust it administratively. Just go through some of the photos. Social property, you can see the tiles to see that. I don’t know what that big old mound of dirt is there. Sorry, I was heart running, yeah. Sorry, right now. Go ahead. **Chair:** All right. So, if Sam does recommend approval of requests, plan more, score that by 6 to 0, or last month. If you have any questions, I’ll probably answer with you. Give me your questions before we open the public hearing. Are you? Thank you, sir. **Council Member:** Do you repeat that part of me? If you stay the day, if you did, prove it—the state of the plan would be changed, or something like that—would you just say? **Staff:** Yeah, so if the board decides that they want to be able to adopt this, because it’s not consistent with the land use claim or the map, but is it something that you did want to be able to change administratively by statute, staff is obligated to change the plan map to reflect whatever your decision is? **Chair:** Thank you. Yeah. Okay, if there’s anything else for you, the public hearing. Or just touch some right now. Thank you, Mr. Two. **Council Member:** Um, this is our, but if you’re looking at it, um, I understand that it’s not compulsion with the landing’s plan, but in my reading correctly, that part of the property is already zoned for heading for Seagree. **Staff:** Yeah, that’s a dormant district that corresponds to RCP. It would be the RR that in the back, that sort of breakfast, and then by putting it into the light industrial, actually, one solidified, it’s not the use, which you can see this in the 3-part motion that we have here. So we did, like, mention the fact that it is, it’ll stream out his juice, it’ll give those on you if I was hunting district and allow them to expand in the future, which is. So it’s partial is not too. So, it’s basically the door. **Council Member:** Yeah, I think so. Thank you. **Chair:** Previously, anything else before you did the public hearing? All right? This time, we’ll end up in a public hearing, Matt Park, with our speakers. They are new speakers. Right, close the public hearing, uh... Racers, any further questions or comments on this case? So you’ve got an all the same motion for to tell you right. Think it’s true. And JZO and uh, C690013, I moved to approve the reasonable request from our rural district, rural residential district, and see free every commercial district, you have one E plan of life, industrial district, and find that one approval is done, adopted, our favor area, land use for it, for the measures, power, or any additional requests, or applications for benefits. But, usually the requests of learning history is appropriate to preserve the current use during the site warranties, learning performing, and allows the applicants to expand their business. The existing and cultural zoning destinations are probably immediately adjacent to the proposed site. The board also finds the request as reasonable, and the public interest that is compatible, and the harmony with the surrounding way, these activities. So... **Chair:** We got a motion to approve the rezoning from C3 to M1 P. It’s been probably 2nd in any discussion or comments on the motion. Hearing done, or we love, or do we want to do? We’ll just raise our hands. Hall and paper, raise your right hand. Amen. And we’ll go ahead and move to case, uh, ZON 260014. **Chair:** Canyon Man your rear, and then you actually write power, I’ll recognize you. Okay. **Staff:** Uh, so, I just say this case, see you in 26. Oh, the 14 you see about the highlight star—the furthest northeastern part of the county, towards, like, 11 area. The owner and the African nucleus owns were Roxy 9LC. The request is good for name one to our rural residential, but the intent is to put some manufactured loans on the site for about 2.67 acres. You can see the property here. I say designing, but it’s basically a property. We buy across the street, but it does, it’s slip by the way, the Falcon Road, here, that says these two slower blocks. You see the zoning out there is sort of a mix of RR and A1. Uh, so there is more, uh, prevalent in the area already. That, um, it is, uh, in the Northcrest Water and Sewer District, so there’s water and sewer that’s sit right in front of the property, so it is served. This is since in the northeast, I wonder when he’s playing area called suburban dynasty residential. So, um, you can see that uh, some of the goals that are here for the suburban Disney residential goals, and we felt that the staff reviewed that it was, uh, that requests to consistently adopt. It’s one of these papers, Southern Sight, and here’s the time. And so, at the, uh, goblin coffee roads and across the street, and then, uh, that’s it. So Stan does recommend approval to requests, and went last month before, and they supported a 6-0 zero. **Chair:** Any questions? Prisoners, questions before we go to the public hearing, Commissioner Adams. **Council Member:** It’s just, it just kind of baffles me. So God went down, it’s all the way around this property, but not—it’s almost like Sedona sitting out here, not just that property, about one, two, about five pieces of property that’s sitting outside, uh, Doblin Town limit. I mean, they just never took it in or not to my house. **Staff:** Thank I think you’re talking about that map up there. You can see the goblin’s kind of limited, dog, without limits, you know, like, this is gonna be on... I property. Can you answer any other questions? **Chair:** Hearing, seeing none, we’ll go ahead and open the public hearing. At part. Speakers. Going through volunteering, uh, prisoners, any other questions or comments on this case? Seeing none, all attain emotion, by Sherman Jones, recognized. **Council Member:** Thank you, Mr. German. In case, um, 26, dash, 0014. I need to improve rezoning requests from A1 agriculture district to our rural residential district, where it finds a request is consistent, but they aren’t East Cameron land use plan, which calls for suburban density residential, and this location, request is reasonable, and public interest, as it is compatible, to add an army surrounding land, use the activities, and... **Chair:** But... They’re about to, for probably 2nd, for approval of rezone from A1 to RR. Is there any comments or questions on the motion? Seeing none on the 3 vote on favor race right hand. Thank you forward. Will go ahead and move forward to hydro-E-K-Z-O-N 260015 for an hour right now. **Chair:** And you’re I was chairman, K-C-O-N, uh, 3601, uh, I didn’t see by the highlight star is look at it, uh, out for the, um, 7 area of the county in the east central part of county. The African owners, which is Todd Mowgley and Jesse Hall Jr. The agent is hot, but I believe it requests to go from A1 agriculture to R3. The intent is for future residential use survived just a little over 27 acres, much like the past case, this case is separated by tax parcel. This is not by zoning, parcel, or tax parcel, as one parcel that has slipped out of America, Paul Rose. You can see here. So it doesn’t. Uh, part of the single family residential matches, uh, the northern east, um, but to the west and the southwest, you’re looking at some uh, agricultural lands. So the Zony Man, you can see here, we do have an R30 track is to here to the north, but largely you can see, including the subdivision here that’s to the north and the east is largely A1. All this is A1 z. But you do have some spots of our 30 year, you have our 3 there. So more of an aerial. So it’s currently being used as a home site, with clear land, and it’s a wooded property in a career. There is a water sewer on this particular road, so it would have to rely on about the subject. You see the property that’s on the western side of the street is, uh, in the uh, has high soils. There are some hybrid soils kind of pockmarked on the east of the side of the plane. You take about the map. So, this falls into the 7 area, lane use plane, which calls for suburban is residential, and you can see by the goals, especially at the last one here, that we do have some associated associations that would be, doesn’t need to be appropriate, and we are early or 20, are our 40. So I felt that in our review that it was consistent with the adopted range. This is the southern property standard on Mary McCall Road. Is living in the Wall Street. South view this is the North travel around inside. So Sam does recommend approval of the requests, however, when we put this in a plan where there was a lot of discussion going on about what they felt was a right rate for the site. So they did, like, recommend denial, but that was by agreed to vote. So it’s mostly... I don’t want to be able to pull out that. So, a lot of, you know, we saw the plane work, at least I want to get, like, a rubber. **Council Member:** Uh, was that some of the concerns that were raised about the planning board as indicated in your Venice, is that, uh, oversight of the absence of the development plan, for its consideration that you want to have some sort of plan, like an additional zoning or something like that. Uh, uh, insufficient infrastructure to work on a huge combination of classes, a lot of discussion about that. So if the board decides to go, play one of those considerations, I think. **Staff:** But, uh, I’ll see you that, we got, this basically, we addressed some apartment. And I can help you do that. At that city. That’s all now for... **Chair:** Commissioners, questions or comments before you open the public hearing. Mr. Tyson, your, thank you. **Council Member:** Well, it is. I kind of read the medicine list. I got a little confused, but I’m glad. Hopefully. One question I did have, in the minutes, we talked about that, um, there was a intent, anyway, to keep all 3 houses that are currently, um, in the area, even behind the zoning and separate them from the property, all with one acre or more. And so my question is, was there a subdivision plat that was ever discussed about subdividing part of the property? Because it seemed like some of the property was going to continue to reuse. I don’t know, reviews, some of it was looking to be developed, but not really with a plan, just maybe kind of the marketability, so just kind of help you through that. **Staff:** Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um, absolutely. That’s a good question. So, yes, there was a discussion about this song here, and this one I’m here about, what I would recall, communication in the Africans, getting the applicants here. We both speak about that. Was the intent to be able to cut, as a part of a subdivision of the entire property, was to cut some of those properties off for further preparation of home sites. There’s a historical, most important value that was associated with that, that was a scientist. To preserve the 2 homes, one in the north, and one in the south, and then basically submit a plat that would have a subdivision that’s around it. Um, I think for the time being, in the applicants, we did this, I think it was an educational wanting to keep forming events for right now until until they got to that time. **Council Member:** And then as a follow-up, there was some discussion about public utilities, and the difference between playing utilities and place utilities. And so my question kind of surrounding that is based on the current request. Would the density of being requested, can the public utilities in that area handle that density? **Staff:** Yeah, there’s no, um, dedicated by, like, the utility mount, which is here. Yeah, there’s no word, so if you rely on the wildness of it, Generally that makes a lot of interest, you know, 20,000 square feet or above would be, um, generally need to be acceptable for a little second. So you’re talking about R3 for it was. Obviously bigger than 20, so he’s they could have bought the level 7 permits, would have to get the whole process... right. Where your power? So, I... that we’re looking at are 30, though, from applicants, where, you know, some more, way more than discussed our 40 as a solution, um, that would, that would get... most of this property actual abilities and lack of imagine. Because this is under the management plan, properties, programs, also benefit, or interactionality, which they want to get on by a 4 year old. Um, I can’t speak to the pretend. My assumption is that with remarkability in the future, if they want to be able to do that, that would be remarkable. If they’re all low water, if we do need low water out there... Uh, it would be through their 70 systems. I mean, I think that what you’re probably referring to is, I think there was a discussion about overall density. So obviously 30,000 square feet, lots of a density is an average, more lots on the property versus an R40. I think that’s kind of where the fight, you know, discussion was about, okay, we were saying, well, maybe it’s too intense. Uh, I think that they did talk about some, uh, like, support, say contamination, but they were just talking about all the stuff that you’re just hearing, you know, about. And I think that there was a push at least a little bit during that discussion. Do you suggest maybe the whole trick of this is our point? So all that would mean is just basically there’s going to be less lots of it which are 40. But they would still have to go and get individuals settling systems. And as part of the planning, they have to go get a soil scientist to certify, then you’re welding something across the whole project. Does that answer your question? **Chair:** Because you’re not... Why shouldn’t you recognize for the public? I’m thank you, Mr. Chairman. You may or stand see so modern. **Council Member:** At the current time, is there any plans for wires to addition plans to these, uh, bring, uh, invisible water to that area? Are you? You might not be. I’m just. That there as a s. I know they’re working on their plans for instructions and things like that, but, um, I haven’t heard anything from utilities about that. And, and, and... I’m like, man, you would prefer that to... water is pretty. --- ## Speaker Index **Roles (unnamed turns):** * **Chair** — \~36 turns (presides, opens/closes hearing, calls speakers) * **Clerk** — \~16 turns (sign-in instructions) * **Council Member** — \~14 turns (deliberation & questions) * **Council Member Tyson** — 2 turns * **Council Member Patel** — 1 turn * **Council Member Sherman Jones** — 1 turn * **Staff (Planning Dept.)** — \~13 turns (zoning, ordinance, rezoning case) * **James Wilts** — \~27 turns (appears to be a council member dominant in deliberation Q&A) [?] **Position summary on the moratorium:** * **Against / pro-data-center (3):** Timothy "Tim" Bryant (CEO of PWC, Fayetteville's electric utility — speaking with operational authority over the rate mechanisms he cites), Richard Van Wye (economic development / trades jobs), Ron Ross (national-trend argument). * **In support of moratorium (\~18):** all other named speakers below. **Public speakers in true order of appearance** (23 total turns; \~20 named + \~3 unidentified): | \# | Speaker | Position | Notes | |-----|---------|----------|-------| | 1 | Steve Hawkins | Pro-moratorium | Yields most of his time | | 2 | Danielle Kunz | Pro-moratorium | "Five pillars" framework (water, air, power, noise, community benefits) | | 3 | Ron Ross | **Against moratorium** | National-trend argument (\~5,000 data centers already exist) | | 4 | Speaker (unidentified) | Pro-moratorium | "500 football fields of solar to power one data center" | | 5 | Speaker (unidentified) | Pro-moratorium | El Paso Meta / Utah O'Leary / Lake Tahoe vignettes | | 6 | Teresa Burns | Pro-moratorium | Asks about rescission notification process | | 7 | Speaker (unidentified) | Pro-moratorium | Brief — "in answer to them, thank you" | | 8 | Nicholas Plyne | Pro-moratorium | Independent media; PFAS/cooling-chemical concerns | | 9 | Speaker (unidentified) | Pro-moratorium | GenX contamination / no permanent county water supply | | 10 | **Timothy "Tim" Bryant** (CEO, PWC) | **Against moratorium** | Speaks from current authority over PWC rate-rider mechanisms | | 11 | Christy Allen | Pro-moratorium | Productive cross-aisle conversation framing | | 12 | Isaac Alfaro | Pro-moratorium | Tech professional; distinguishes web vs. high-capacity AI data centers | | 13 | Speaker (unidentified) | Pro-moratorium | Cites SELC + AI Now Policy Institute recommendations | | 14 | Trish Wyman | Pro-moratorium | 22-yr Army vet; BI analyst; asks for **3-year** moratorium not 1 | | 15 | Antelon Franklinson | Pro-moratorium | PSL organizer | | 16 | Abby Mills | Pro-moratorium | Cooling water/electricity arguments | | 17 | Christina Reeves | Pro-moratorium | — | | 18 | Eric Little | Pro-moratorium | — | | 19 | Jennifer Jackson | Pro-moratorium | — | | 20 | **Richard Van Wye** | **Leaning against moratorium** | 48-yr resident; wants county to attract corporate investment; cites trades jobs | | 21 | Sarah [?] | Pro-moratorium | — | | 22 | Ashley Tucker | Pro-moratorium | — | | 23 | Larry Fluff | Pro-moratorium | — | | 24 | Glenn Hosman | Pro-moratorium | — | | 25 | Justin [?] | Pro-moratorium | — | **Council deliberation participants (after public hearing closed):** * Chair (presides) * Council Member Tyson * Council Member Patel * Council Member Sherman Jones * James Wilts [?] — appears dominant in Q&A; possibly mis-merged from multiple member voices, see notes below * Staff (Planning Department) **Notes on attributions:** * Speaker labels were inferred from contextual cues (self-introductions, the Chair calling names, parliamentary phrasing). Uncertain attributions are marked `[?]`. * The transcript is auto-generated and contains many misheard names (e.g., "Kenn Bryant" → Timothy "Tim" Bryant; employer FPL not captured). Cleanup was limited to obvious typos; speaker words are preserved verbatim. * During council deliberation, individual member voices are difficult to separate without a roll-call; many turns are labeled generically as **Council Member**. * **Diarization issues caught on second-pass review:** * Speaker #5 (El Paso/Meta vignettes) was initially mis-labeled as the Chair speaking. Corrected. * Speaker #13 (SELC / AI Now Policy Institute) was initially bundled into Isaac Alfaro's turn. Corrected. * "James Wilts" appearing \~27 times in deliberation is implausible for a single council member and is almost certainly the synthesizer collapsing multiple member voices under one inferred name. Treat all "James Wilts" attributions as suspect — these likely represent a mix of Tyson, Patel, Sherman Jones, and possibly the Chair.